Colorado § 1-4-905.7 - Expenditures related to petition circulation - report - penalty - definitions.

§ 1-4-905.7. Expenditures related to petition circulation - report - penalty - definitions.

(1) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) "Expenditure" means a payment to a circulator.

(b) "False address" means a street address, post office box, city, state, or any other designation of place used in a circulator's affidavit that does not represent the circulator's correct address of permanent domicile at the time the circulator circulated petitions. "False address" does not include an address that merely omits the designation of "street", "avenue", "boulevard", or any comparable term but does include the omission of the apartment or unit number, where applicable, of the place of residence.

(c) "Report" means the report required to be filed pursuant to subsection (2) of this section.

(2) No later than ten days after the date that a candidate, recall, or minor party petition is filed with the secretary of state, the candidate or candidate committee, recall committee, or representatives of the minor party petition must submit to the secretary of state a report that states the dates of circulation by all circulators who were paid to circulate a section of the petition, the total hours for which each circulator was paid to circulate a section of the petition, the gross amount of wages paid for such hours, and any addresses used by circulators on their affidavits that the candidate or candidate committee, recall committee, or representatives of the minor party petition, or their agents, have determined, prior to petition filing, to be false addresses.

(3) (a) Within ten days after the date the report is filed, a registered elector may file a complaint alleging a violation of the requirements for the report set forth in subsection (2) of this section. The candidate or candidate committee, recall committee, or representatives of the minor party petition committee may cure the alleged violation by additionally filing a report or an addendum to the original report within ten days after the date the complaint is filed. If the violation is not cured, a hearing officer shall conduct a hearing on the complaint within fourteen days after the date of the additional filing or the deadline for the additional filing, whichever is sooner.

(b) (I) After a hearing is held, if the hearing officer determines that the candidate or candidate committee, recall committee, or representatives of the minor party petition intentionally violated the reporting requirements of this section, the candidate or candidate committee, recall committee, or representatives of the minor party petition shall be subject to a penalty that is equal to three times the amount of any expenditures that were omitted from or erroneously included in the report.

(II) If the hearing officer determines that the candidate or candidate committee, recall committee, or representatives of the minor party petition intentionally misstated a material fact in the report or omitted a material fact from the report, or if the candidate or candidate committee, recall committee, or representatives of the minor party petition never filed a report, the registered elector who instituted the proceedings may commence a civil action to recover reasonable attorney fees and costs from the candidate or candidate committee, recall committee, or representatives of the minor party petition.

(c) Except as otherwise provided in this section, any procedures related to a complaint shall be governed by the "State Administrative Procedure Act", article 4 of title 24.

Source: L. 2024: Entire section added, (SB 24-210), ch. 468, p. 3244, § 11, effective January 1, 2025.